testing?

How long should a person be riding their bike before they do their first threshold test? I have only been on my bike about three days a week for the past two weeks and want to establish some training zones for a new power app to use while on my trainer. I picked FT level of 300 just to find a tempo number to go by. I have used it on six rides and I just stay between 225 and 250 watts for an hour. Does this sound wrong to use until I can do an actual test? thanks Ryon

I would make sure your legs and heart are ready for it. When I come back after taking a break from training I do about a day of tempo work for an hour or two than a day of Endurance work for 2-3 hours. Than on the third day I do a FTP test - making sure I do a great warm up (10 minutes of high RPM reps, 5 min hard effort) than do the 20 min time trail. Like Ponch said, take 95% of your average power for the 20 min and that is what sets up your training zones.
I wouldn't recommend trying to do the test right after a few days off the bike!

Well, I do not have a bunch of riding in but six semi solid days. I generally do tues. thurs. and sun. I ride around town a bunch and dont get to far out of shape with other activities. I dont think it will shock me too much. Thanks guys, headed to throw down the 20 min. test now.
Once I have established my numbers, what is a real basic and effective way to start thinking about them in terms of early season base? thank you, Ryon

It's all relative really. What do you want to measure your gains by? Seems like most of the guys I know kinda like to be out of their base miles and somewhere into the beginnings of the build period.

It makes no sense for a fit guy, for example, to do a power test after being sedantary for a month unless you are looking for "huge" artificial gains.

You mentioned that you never got too out of shape. Having said that, yeh.. maybe you are ready for a test. Have you ever done one before when you were race fit?

Make sure you do a solid warm up. Also, ease into the 20 min a bit conservative so you can finish strong and ramp up towards the end. Start off too fast and you will pop.

IMO, just "picking" an ftp of 300W is sorta like guestimating where you should be on a perceived effort scale. Might be too high...might be too low. You have to be the judge of that. Might be accurate??

Good question btw.. I don't think there is necessarily a "correct" answer here.

Once I have established my numbers, what is a real basic and effective way to start thinking about them in terms of early season base? thank you, Ryon

Since you spent the money on a power meter, I suggest you get a coach or buy a pre-made training plan! After using a powermeter now for about 5 years and trying all sorts of training ideas and plans - a professionally made plan is worth the expense!
Oh, and make sure you read Racing and Training with a Power Meter.

averaged 292 for the twenty minutes & spent my last 6 minutes around 300-315. I initially was shooting to maintain 285 but felt pretty good so I ramped it up. HR ave. was 154 with max being 177.
Ponch, z2 uh? going mediocre is way harder than intensity on the trainer. I only have power on the trainer so I am hoping to get a more accurate RPE with watts on the trainer to take outside. I will do three days a week on the trainer until March, is it all in zone 2?

averaged 292 for the twenty minutes
Ponch, z2 uh? going mediocre is way harder than intensity on the trainer. I only have power on the trainer so I am hoping to get a more accurate RPE with watts on the trainer to take outside. I will do three days a week on the trainer until March, is it all in zone 2?

Therefore FTP=292*.95 = 277. So let's make your FTP 280.

Your Z2 would be 155-210W. Try holding 200W for 3 hours for several days in a row and you'll find it's not easy at all. The key though is being consistent and doing it for several weeks.

There's other zone 2 stuff you can do to make trainer time more interesting:
-Do a 10-20s hard sprint every 10 minutes. Immediately settle back into zone 2.
-Vary cadence targets (say 5 minutes at 100rpm, 5 minutes 80rpm, 5minutes 90rpm, etc.)

For the first couple of weeks keep your trainer sessions around Z2, save the Tempo efforts for the weekend ride. After a couple of weeks you can start integrating tempo stuff midweek.

Yes Ponch, I am shooting for 14-15 hrs a week ideally, but I seem to be really consistent getting 12. I start fatiguing a lot when I am close to 15hrs for 3-4 weeks in a row.
I am going to try to do the z2 stuff you posted for the remainder of February but will only be about 4 hrs a week, the snow is good still! March 1st the bike time will be at a minimum 9 hrs a week, minus a five day mountain trip. I really appreciate the help. When would you start doing some tempo stuff? I was thinking that I could start ramping it up toward the end of March a little with some long days doing some SST. What do you think?
Im not in to big of a hurry. My major race is Marathon Nat. in July and Breck Epic in August.
Thanks again,
Ryon

When would you start doing some tempo stuff? I was thinking that I could start ramping it up toward the end of March a little with some long days doing some SST. What do you think?

You could have March be a Tempo emphasis month, and April be a Tempo/SST month. May and June be SST/Threshold months (not much short intervals, since I believe for marathon races high FTP and endurance would dominate).

If you do 14-15 hours a week (with every 3rd or 4th week being lower volume: 8 or 9 hours) with 3-4 hours of interval work (tempo/SST/threshold) per week, you'll be flying by July.

Umm... good discussion. I'm following base building for cyclists by Chapple. Its a great read and he's in with Friel and Allan, Coggan crowd. One point the book brings out is by riding slower in base your teaching your body to use fat instead of carbs and obviously building an endurance platform from which to do your higher level training from. And... lots of level 2 work like Ponch has said here. With this said I attempted a threshold test yesterday and my numbers are down from December. In fact at 13 minutes into the test I stopped b/c my legs felt flat and my heart rate average was 10 beats higher for the same power after the 13 minutes! So...I was holding the same power as my test in Dec but my HR was up 10 more beats per minute! So instead of a threshold test it become a somewhat of a zone 5 interval instead of a zone 4 test. I shot too high assuming my numbers would be the same as Dec. So sorry to babble here but my worry is that all the zone 2 riding (2x45's and 2x60's) isn't improving my FTP. Maybe it's not supposed to right now but I sure hope all the base training with hardly anything in zone 3 or 4 pays off in build. My hope is that my FTP wouldn't go down throughout the winter but at the least maintain. Is it normal for the FTP to droop down during base?

I followed bible last year and made gains - no where near 15 hrs a week though. (but admittedly, I am relatively new to cycling). In hindsight with volume I did last year I would have done things differently - more aggressively - due to limited time I spend on bike.

I certainly wouldnt do lots of Z2 on a sub 12h training regime. And I wouldnt confine myself to the oh-so-preached SST and threshold model either.

Depends on your experience, events, goals.

Dr. Stephen Cheung, Ph.D. co-author with Hunter Allen on recent book "Cutting Edge Cycling" has an article on Pez Cyling about intensity in 'non-competitive season'.

"By no means is any of this suggesting that you toss out aerobic training and simply do VO2max efforts every ride throughout the non-competition season! The main conclusion from Paton and Hopkins’s review (1) should be that there is potential benefit from SMALL amounts of high-intensity efforts supplementing the aerobic training." Dr. Stephen Cheung, Ph.D.

. My hope is that my FTP wouldn't go down throughout the winter but at the least maintain.

Quote by Dr. Stephen Cheung, Ph.D., I realize that he is talking about sprinting.

"the effort required to sprint at, for example, 1000 W, is very specific in terms of metabolic and neuromuscular demands. If you spend 6 months not stimulating and forcing your body to this level of effort, you will “detrain” from being able to handle this effort, and will spend a lot of time and effort building back up to this level. In contrast, just a small amount of stimulus may be enough to maintain these gains throughout the non-competitive season, allowing you to build and progress year-to-year."

I would make sure your legs and heart are ready for it. When I come back after taking a break from training I do about a day of tempo work for an hour or two than a day of Endurance work for 2-3 hours. Than on the third day I do a FTP test - making sure I do a great warm up (10 minutes of high RPM reps, 5 min hard effort) than do the 20 min time trail. Like Ponch said, take 95% of your average power for the 20 min and that is what sets up your training zones.
I wouldn't recommend trying to do the test right after a few days off the bike!

I guess it has been discussed before in other threads, but how accurate is the 20 minute FTP test for setting training zones? I ended up doing two 20 minute tests last week. The first one I was "under the weather" and really started struggling around the 12 minute point. Whatever I was fighting included a fever that broke later that evening. Somehow, I avoided it turning into anything like a cold or flu and bounced back all week long to feeling perfectly normal. I repeated the test 6 days later and pretty much hit my prior FTP numbers (from other years for this point in the base) that I expected to hit the previous weekend but couldn't hold.

There is probably an element of "getting better" at doing a FTP test just based on the mind and body's ability to endure the darn thing. And with only doing one every blue moon, I always forget what a grunt it can be. That being said, is there a general +/- percentage of accuracy of an FTP test for setting training zones?

I had a crappy season last year and only got back to training for 2 months now, having back issues for three weeks of January. I have been riding trails in the snow and doing an old 45 minute cyclerobix interval program I have once or twice a week.

A good season for me is 6 to 8 hours riding a week, and I'm lucky to put in 5 hours a week right now.

I did an LT test last night just to see where I am and I was a little shocked. After screwing around with my HR monitor for 20 minutes while trying to warm up I finally got sweaty enough and got down to business.

As recommended by Friel I went for 30 minutes holding back just a hair for the first ten. My HR was ~177 for this period. The middle ten I upped it a bit to ~180, and then went absolutely balls to the wall for the last ten. I was absoulutely dying with 5 minutes left and had to bring my HR down from ~186 to ~183 just to finish. Lucklily my daughter dumped my water bottle on my head at this time. It cooled me down enough that I didn't puke all over the floor.

I'm only going by my cheapo Timex which doesn't average so I'd say my LT is ~181~182 or so.

Last time I tested was 3 winters back and I was ~179~180.

I feel like I pushed harder this time that's for sure.

My max HR in my 30s was well over 200, and I've certainly seen high 190s many times in my forties.

I'm trying Carmichaels Time Crunched Cyclist this year, since Friel demands time and comittment I don't have.

I guess it has been discussed before in other threads, but how accurate is the 20 minute FTP test for setting training zones?

Obviously, this comes from the book "Training and Racing with Power" which has 1000's of different athletes data to work off.
From my experience it is pretty accurate. Last year I did a 20 min test 2 weeks before a MTB hill climb. During the hill climb my first 60 minutes averaged right at my FTP, and the next 30 minutes (the race was 1 1/2 hours for me) you can see my power drop away slowly. The definition of FTP is the Power you can hold for a 1 hour Time Trail. So if you don't think the 20 min TT works, you can always do a 1 hour TT to set your FTP.